HITMAN Is Finally Greenlit! But Vin Diesel Got Whacked!!

Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I’ve played a bit of HITMAN, the Eidos game that inspired this film, and it’s fun. Like any game-to-film adaptation, though, there’s a lot of heavy lifting required to turn it into a narrative worth watching.
And it looks like Skip (SWORDFISH) Woods has nailed it. At least, whatever he just turned in has finally gotten the film a greenlight. For a while now, Vin Diesel is the name that’s been attached to the film as star.
Nope. It’s Timothy Olyphant instead. And, frankly, I think that’s awesome casting. I’m a huge fan of DEADWOOD, I can’t wait to see him play another growling, deadly sonofabitch.
Luc Besson has just come aboard the film to co-produce along with Chuck Gordon, Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter, and the film should be in theaters as early as next fall from 20th Century Fox.
I love the Besson-produced action films that Fox has been releasing the last few years. I wish he was directing more often, but I don’t really care who’s behind the camera as long as the films maintain that same standard of kick-assery, and this one provides at least the opportunity for more of the same. Fingers crossed.

I'm glad to see Olyphant getting some cool gigs like Die Hard 4 and now this. Not sure how he will look bald though. Er, he is going to be bald, right? Actually I won't even care if he's bald or not as long as the movie is good.

what does the name brand bring? absolutely nothing. by the time this gets released, will anyone care? will those who played it give a shit? will your average moviegoer care that it was a videogame years ago? myopia is alive and well in hollywood. the only way these kinds of movies make any sense is if there's a hot, name actor involved, and even then....

Hes the worst actor on the show. Hes out of his league and its obvious. While he does a passable job your always keenly aware that hes an actor playing a role. He just doesn't pull of the badass role well IMO. As Hitman again he'll be asked to play the role of menacing badass and he wont be up to the task. Statham's price tag is probably too high these days. Thats also probably why Diesel got passed over. They got the green-light to do this with a modest budget. "Hitman: Silent Assassin" is one of the best "Stealth genre" games ever released but I don't hold much hope for this movie adaptation.

that Besson would want to go out with a bang and do another balls to the wall action flick before continuing to churn out scripts and deals for mediocre franchise action. Although I did like District B13, I wish he would work heavyweight at the helm again. ARTHUR AND THE MINIMOYS must be something pretty special for him to have it bat clean up his entire career. Or it's godawful and he's self aware enough to pull his own plug before he would make the LEON sequel. And Olyphant in the HITMAN lead is good, good news. It is imperative Ian McShane play the villain and everyone gets called a cocksucker at least once. Seriously.

Olyphant was the most badass one on DEADWOOD. The way he would walk around just seething with rage and letting it out in little fits and starts here and there was fantastic. Only when Swearengen was on full cutthroat tilt was there a bigger badass at the camp. Bullock was a fucking psychopath trying to keep his tie on straight while fighting back the urge to just lay waste to the entire town and Olyphant played him with a great shaking restraint and mounting frustration that he had to bury his sociopathic impulses down deep. Bullock was by the far the most fun to watch as he continued to come more and more unhinged. Bullock walking Hearst down the thoroughfare by the ear was one of the greatest TV moments I can recall in recent years. He'll definitely do HITMAN justice.

...I once suggested Olyphant should play Sam Fisher in a SPLINTER CELL movie. Oh well, I got the badass stealth action hero genre right anyway. What's happening with the Splinter Cell property anyway? And let's stop with the Statham suggestions please, if you're going to get a bald lug to play Agent 47, it must be the VOSLOO!

Just the other day I was saying to myself "You know Ribbons, whatever happened to the guy who wrote 'Swordfish'? He needs to write more often! Particularly any and all films that sexualize violence and cater to male adolescent power fantasies!" What a delightful turn of events! ******** In all seriousness, I'm happy for Timothy Olyphant. He was my favorite part of 'The Girl Next Door' and he's given great performances in both "Deadwood" and 'Go.' Between this and the rumor that Favreau was looking at him for 'Iron Man,' he seems to be on the verge of stardom.

Yes, Agent 47 has a bit of a history to him, but it's never the driving force that makes this series great. Hitman's all about observing things, and interactions, not about character development. The suroundings are the character. 47's not Sam Fisher, and certaily not Solid/Naked Snake in terms of depth.<br><br>With someone like Tim, it's safe to assume, the role will get overhauled and Agent 47 will speak a hell of a lot more than he did in the games. Which is a shame because this will kill the aura of mystery that surrounded the role in Hitman 2 and Contracts (I never played the first one, and have yet to play Blood Money).<br><br>Hitman should be one longass stealth mission set in several locales. A spy movie. A real one, not some franchise *cough*Bond*cough* that, most of the time doesn't fit the bill, and one that doesn't veer off couse like Mission:Impossible. Infiltration, concealment, observation, elimination, extraction. Although, the first M:I was a pretty darn good example of what this should be in some ways. There's a shitload of on the fly M:I wardrobe changes by 47 in the games.<br><br>I'm definitely interested in seeing how this shapes up, I hope it captures the feel of the series like Silent Hill did for it's franchise, but I'm also hoping the script is light years better than what Hill delivered.<br><br>I hope one or a few of the following scenarios from the games are in the film:<br>1.The Hayamoto castle in the mountains of Kirokiyama, Japan (complete with snow, snipers, and NINJA'S!!!)<br>2.The Meat King's party in a Romanian slaughterhouse/sex club (This has been done to death though.)<br>3.Beldingford Manor in the countryside of England (Having 47 blend in with a hunting party, making his way through a hedge maze and getting into the house was pretty cool.)<br><br>Also, the Sidjan bros. mission in Petronas Towers business centre in Hitman 2 has to be one of my favorite levels from this series (that I've played) or any in the genre for that matter. There's so many things you have to do to get to a hacker who's in the basement of the building. Smoke bombs, posing as a fireman, knocking out a pizza guy, it's certainly a trial and error stage, but trying to solve it without alerting anyone, is fun as hell. Yes, even with the twitchy enemy/civilian A.I.<br><br>Y'know, just thinking about that makes me wanna head out to Gamestop and pick up a used copy, and I just might do that when I pick up the "Non Gimmick Edition" of Twilight Princess next week.

And personally I think he's a damn fine actor, and has proven his range in a whole host of films now. So yeah, this is interesting casting, and I'm fully prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt with the belief he has what it takes to make it work, even though, on the surface, I agree that Statham seemed like a more obvious choice.

How ironic that tonight I popped in Swordfish. Olyphant, inspired choice and great actor. By the way, Beeson has stated he HASN'T fully committed to retiring from directing just yet. Granted, it may be a sequel to Arthur and the Invisibles but at least he will still be directing. It may have been greenlit but until the film starts rolling through the cogs of the camera, be patient...a lot of things could still happen.

...is yeah, he looks the part, and he has a certain rogueish charm and likability about him, but honestly, he's not really that much of an actor. Does Hitman require more than Statham's usual schtick? Who knows, have to wait and see how it rolls out I guess before judging that one. <p>Add to which Statham looks like the kind of guy that could beat the shit out of you, but would know when to stop, whereas Olyphant looks like the kind of guy that, if pushed, would just snap and outright try and fucking kill you (as demonstrated so well on Deadwood). The more I think about it the more I like this bit of casting...

Namely ex-bouncer "Vin Diesel" or that wooden moron from the "Italian Job" remake. I have no idea who this Olyphant is, or if this is an African or an Indian olyphant, but no choice could be worse than one of the two mentioned earlier...

"You know how many woman I've had sex with? Three" I hope he says that in the Hitman movie. But if Besson is producing it will be a flashy and totally empty experience. Watching a Besson produced action movie is like watching Sammo Hung in Martial Law

They should make Manhunt, which had to be the most vulgar (yet strangely addictive) game I have ever played.
Poor Vin, what went wrong? I used to think the guy had promise after Saving Private Ryan and Boiler Room, even Pitch Black and sequel weren't that bad. But then came Triple X, his breakdancing video, and the Duck movie. Ouch.

Yes, I do not like him and don't care if he is acting or not acting, but I will defend him and attest to the fact that he knows what he is doing and can act pretty decent. Latetly, he has just been taking crappy scripts, with crappy directors, and crappy stories. Have you ever seen any of that solo stuff he did? Or anything leading up to his good perfomance in Saving Private Ryan? I think he has just gotten a bad rap due to his past few years of work. About this game adaption, whatever, I do not care. All they are really doing is putting a video game name on a movie and proclaming it is an adaption of the game. Similar to the whole Miami Vice thing. There was no reason to call is Miami Vice. If Mann just named it something else it would have been better recieved.

Whoever said that, the series is still going strong. In fact, the latest game (Blood Money) might have been the best so far. Friggin Ave Marie playing while you pretend to be dead only to get up and shoot the hell out of the church is one of the best endings ever.

I think there was maybe one topical and worth while post so far. Fuckin hell, who deosn't know Besson retired form directing but has been writing and producing for like the past ...oh I dunno TEN YEARS!?!?
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And it's not like he can't just come out of retirement if he wants. There's no binding contract that will restrict him.
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Timothy Olyphant will be amazing. Perfect choice. These games are great and extremely theatrical. Statham would suck in this role. Just because he's bald doesn't mean jack shit. It is possible to shave someone's head. I swear I've head modern medical science has accomplished this.
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This movie will be as far from The Transporter as Aliens was from ET. If you'd actually played the games and gone through a meat packing plant cutting people's throats and shooting them in the balls you'd know that.
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Skip Woods kicks ass and I've championed Swordfish for a long time. Usually to looks of total confusion and "are you serious" but I can't help it. I love that movie. Thursday wasn't that great but who knocks it out of the park their first time right?
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My only concern is they'll try to avoid an R ratings. If they kiss the PG rating goodbye (when do we get to bury the rating system? Can we have an open discussion about how antiquated and idiotic it is? We've censored movies for quite a while now and the world is only more violent. It's time to take a more serious look at things with open eyes and this time even our brains) and go balls out with the killing this movie will kick some ass.

He does a good job of playing mean SOBs, so I think there's hope. Although I'm sure the movie studio screw up and down play the whole mass murderer thing and make the character more sympathetic. Hooray for a watered down PG-13 version of Hitman. I can't freaking wait.

3 Days of the Condor. Day of the Jackal (not the Willis thing). The Bourne films. The Professional. The point being, a popular and entertaining game does not an interesting character make. Let's face it; good villains/anti-heroes are entertaining because they are characters not just killers.

I think the adventures of Tommmy and Nate The Hat in the comic book HITMAN by Garth Ennis and John McCrea would be a MUCH MUCH better film then the video game of the same name. Go Read the Ten Thousand Bullets Trade. That would be classic to be put on film. Got my hopes up for nothing..drat

I cannot understand for the life of me why people want Statham for this role. He's bald? Wears a suit? Agent 47 is nothing like the fucking Transporter and i've seen nothing that leads me to believe Statham can even play a character like 47.
BTW, Chronicles of Riddick is underrated. So a fun movie with a fun video game that surprised everyone.

Great idea! Patrick Stewart would be pretty cool for 47, but a bit old maybe, and he doesn't really do stunts, (That fight he has in Star Trek Generations always makes me laugh) plus an incredibly respected actor. But if we're talking about great actors doing 47, a bald Ralph Fienes would be pretty cool as well. Or John Malkovich would be sweet

... might want to learn to read.
<P>This internet report, the source of the Tim Olyphant casting news, never said that Vin was "dumped" for Olyphant. Simply that Olyphant will be playing a role that Vin was attached to at one point.
<P>That TMZ "breaking news" was the biggest fucking non-story I think I've ever read. Thanks for reprinting it, MetalWater. It illuminated exactly nothing about anything.

According to IGN, they say.."AICN claims Woods' script was strong enough to finally get the project green-lit by Fox. The studio advised IGN, however, that Hitman has not been green-lit and remains in development status." So is the studio advising IGN correctly? Is IGN lame and perhaps does not have the studio hookup like they claim? Or maybe AICN got their facts wrong and they are the ones who need a new mole, who knows. Anyjuan here able to clear that up. OH, and what is up with the ROCKY Q and A? Almost midnight Central time and nothing posted yet. Hehe, I am hawking over this now but not sorry for it.

Good suggestion with Ralph Fiennes. I've always liked him in the movies he's done, and I've yet to see a bad performance from him.
John Malkovich might be a bit too cold for me. Sure Agent 47 isn't exactly known for being emotional but I always thought of Malkovich as a villain and not so much as a hero.
Patrick Stewart may be too old for stunts, but then again Agent 47 is not only a master at killing, he's a master of stealth. The strengths of the character don't require huge stunts, considering in the game the only physical activity that 47 has to do is run from time to time. Most of time 47 is walking around quietly killing his victims.
Agent 47 isn't really all that young anyway, is he?

The best film to have Besson's name remotely connected with it in ages. You MUST see B-13 if you haven't... thank me later, it's fucking incredible. Who'da thunk it, the French own the action genre in the 21st century so far.
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Although I haven't seen "Unleashed" yet, I'm looking forward to that.
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Reserving judgement on Olyphant... every time I see one of the Deadwood guys in a movie (like Sol in Miami Vice) it's just distracting. I agree Olyphant can seem wooden, and his repressed schtick can be tiresome. Weird to imagine him filling Vin's bulked-out shoes. We'll see.

Guy looks nothing like him.. For once Agent 47 is a character that can be fitted to a "T". Even Vin Diesel would have not been the best person for the role. I won't bore with details about the game.. But overall, this game was based upon the perfect human clone.. that was used in the midst of the first geneic cloning.. If you don't remember what I'm talking about.. Just recall the 1998 Geneva Convention. GREAT GAME, EVEN BETTER MOVIE!

Alright, so really, I love the Hitman video games that have been put out by Edios.
But really, I am sure they could have had someone to play the role much better then Timothy Olyphant? maybe I am just a little sinister towards the movie because another writer and i have been working on a script for this for that pastyear, but really, he's not even bald in it! or it looks like he is wearing a skin cap over his head. A great choice that they could have gone with on this movie would have been Michael Rosembaum. Most people prob. don't know this actor but he plays Lex Luthor in Smallville. He pulls off the bald look and he has a very sinister/monitone side to him where he would be able to pull of the look and the acting.
I am very skeptical of this movie, the trailer looks decent, but so do alot of them before they come out.
They should have just made this a indy release and then worked there way into the big leagues with it, and then done some recasting.